No Time Like the Present
by Dzuljeta
Summary: The Doctor is more gloomy than ever, Martha learns even a mention of Rose could be dangerous. Captain Jack comes to them with good news, but things don't always go as intended. All they need to do now is have a little bit of patience... Ten/Rose
1. Chapter One

_A/N. Here, have another story, my beauties! With a bit of rather upset Martha (not for long!), more than a bit of Jack (because there can never be enough of him)… and a great deal of Ten/Rose (not exactly in this chapter, but…) :) Please, let me know what you think!_

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**No Time Like the Present**

**Chapter One**

"Don't you think you should let go of all this mess? Relax a bit?" Martha suggested kindly, after they have returned from yet another adventure. Although peace had been reached, no blood had been shed, the Doctor was uncharacteristically gloomy. The last thing he needed was letting go. Although the Time Lord believed having the brilliant Martha Jones do the things she'd suggested him would only do good for her.

"I could send _you_ to some pleasure planet, if you'd like, Martha." The Time Lord could see the soon-to-be-doctor was exhausted. He knew he should apologise for having put her through all that. His behaviour hadn't been fair towards her – never allowing her to have the much-needed rest and putting the bigger part of work in her hands, while he had been lost in his thoughts more than ever.

"Me? You're kidding, Doctor."

"Yes, you! As for me, I've got Rose to hold on to," the Doctor rolled his eyes at his companion the moment she glared at him incredulously.

"Rose?" _Again?_ His mental state seemed to have been deteriorating at a terrifying rate – it had become clear to the companion some weeks ago, with the constant upswings and downfalls in the Time Lord's mood Martha had recently stopped taking as behaviour absolutely natural for the Doctor. It seemed, every now and then, that he was on the verge of losing his mind, often because of trivial reasons, such as the ship not listening to his orders immediately or landing them further than the Doctor had intended. Running out of bananas was a very unpleasant experience, but she'd take that over the majority of other instances. Especially over the ones including anything related to Rose. Always Rose. Always trouble, whenever he says her name. It was as if she were some mysterious deity. An evil deity.

Martha has learnt to be particularly careful, whenever addressing the painful subject. "I'm so sorry, Doctor. You need to wake up for once! Your Rose is dead and gone… for how long, already?" Martha was getting more and more exasperated every time that name escaped the Time Lord's lips. It always, always meant some kind of trouble.

"She's not _dead_. Gone, perhaps… but not for long now."

"How so?" The companion knew almost nothing of this Rose, other than the Doctor was no less than obsessed with her. Martha was not certain if she'd like to meet her, even if such a possibility weren't but lovesick Time Lord's ramblings. But his determination interested her.

"I'll get her back," he snapped. "Whatever it takes." Martha _was_ a brilliant companion, but she had no inborn understanding of how things must be… unlike Rose.

The companion spoke as softly as she could. "Can't she get back to you herself? Or perhaps she doesn't want to?"

She could see his face transforming into a mask of cold hatred the next moment, and she shuddered, backing away instinctively. It was not the first time she saw him in his Oncoming Storm state, and she was even more terrified this time.

"You know nothing, _Martha Jones_." The Doctor's voice sent shivers down her spine, but she was not a baby.

Her voice was completely level – taking lessons was of use. "I know nothing, because you don't tell me anything about-" she thought better of it, - "about your previous companions. You must have had quite a lot of them during the years, yes?"

"Fairly a lot, yes," the Doctor smiled at her, as if remembering. "They were all amazing, as are you, Martha," he winked at her. However, much to the girl's displeasure, the alien also remembered the exact point where the conversation reached the breaking point.

"Rose, she- she cannot- has no means to- _I_ will bring her back."

"All right, all right," the companion relented, raising her hands in concession. "What then?"

"Then… I'll get to finish the sentence."

"What sentence?" Martha could not hide her interest completely. However, the question seemed to have instantly stopped the Doctor from opening himself to her any further. The way he felt about Rose was an entirely personal matter.

"The one I should have said a long time ago."

The dark-skinned companion looked at him searchingly. It was obvious from his tense behaviour the Doctor was not going to expand on it. Perhaps it was for the better…

"What does it matter now? I'll just have to wait for a little bit longer, and then-"

"Until what?"

"Until Rose Tyler comes back, obviously," a familiar voice scared both of them. "Hi, Doctor. It's been a long time, eh? I seem to have forgotten how much fun eavesdropping can be!"

"Captain." The Doctor eyed him disbelievingly. His appearance promised nothing good.

"Yep. The very same. Just look at you!" It was impossible to say whom that sentence was directed at, Jack's eyes gleaming with admiration at both of them.

"Don't start, Jack. Find your victims somewhere else."

Jack ignored him. Was it just his luck, or was every regeneration of the Doctor like this?

"Who is this gorgeous lady? And where's Rose?"

_Another handsome one, another one into Rose._ Martha smiled at the man nonetheless. "I'm Martha. Rose is long gone, it appears."

"What do you mean, _long gone_?" Jack was terrified. "I thought- Excuse us for a sec, dear," the Captain looked at the door meaningfully, and rushed out. The Doctor was beside him in a few moments.

Jack Harkness eyed the Doctor searchingly, panic clearly visible in his features. "She was supposed to be here with you!"

"I know… But- Canary Wharf, you must remember?!"

It was hurting the Doctor to even think about it, let alone word the experience.

"And Norway afterwards. Yes, I know it. She told me."

"What?"

"That's right, Doctor. Rose has told me everything." Jack forced the Doctor to sit down. "You stay still and listen, yes? Or I won't tell you anything. And, for Heaven's sake… stop panicking!"

The alien rolled his eyes at Jack. He, for one, seemed in a panic attack no less. "How do you expect me to remain still?" The Time Lord stood up and began pacing the floor nervously, always talking. "I have lost her. Have been planning, still am, actually, to take certain steps in attempting to reach her, talk to her, perhaps… no matter if it broke my heart to pieces."

"Calm down, Doc. There's no need of that, I'm certain."

The Doctor decided it couldn't hurt to pretend for a short while. "Right. Just answer me this – how comes you've got the chance to meet her? In what dimension? In which universe?" _How?_

Jack ignored the Time Lord completely, deep in thought. "It can't be we've miscounted. We've spent months and months on trying to find the right way to get Rose to you! And when we believed to have finally worked everything out-"

The Doctor tried his best to control himself. It wasn't him working on getting Rose back, but somebody else!

"Who are _we_, exactly?"

"Trust me, you wouldn't want to know." At that moment, Jack's mobile phone began to ring. "Sorry, Doc. Give me a moment."

The Gallifreyan only rolled his eyes at the Captain. In no way was he going to leave, when so many things were left unsaid.

"Yes. Yes. Just hurry up, you beautiful thing!" he hung up, a smug smirk on his face.

The Doctor turned his eyes upwards. The once-Time Agent had all the indications of his previous occupation – exceedingly proud of himself and his _gadgets_, yet unable to admit some people were better than him in so many aspects... Still, it felt good to have him on board.

Not that the Gallifreyan was going to admit it.

"Another one of your lovers, I take it?"

Jack shrugged, glaring at him. "One of yours."


	2. Chapter Two

_A/N. Of course, I _can_ understand the whole what's-the-need-of-reviewing kind of approach, but… :( It does nothing to help._

_Anyway, I might have forgotten to put up the much-needed __**disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC and to them alone.**_

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**No Time Like the Present: Chapter Two**

The Doctor took Jack's words as a bad attempt to cheer him up. After all, the immortal one seemed satisfied.

"Lovely to see at least one of us is amused," the Gallifreyan noted with a shrug, his expression terrifyingly similar to the one Jack was painfully familiar with… back in his _mortal_ days.

"You should be, too."

"Yeah?" First, you sneak into the TARDIS without permission – I'd rather not know how has the ship accepted you stepping on board at all; second, you allow yourself cause Rassilon-knows-what disruption of timelines by simply jumping into this universe using what? A vortex manipulator?"

The Captain shook his head, incredulous. Was this really the man Rose was so obviously smitten with? Other than good looks, he did not seem much different from the big-eared Doctor. Behaviour-wise, at least.

"I'll have you know, employing this thing has saved billions!"

Jack's words were purposefully ignored. "And third, or last, or first, or the most important," the Doctor's voice became menacing, "you talk about Rose as if she were not lost forever. We both know she-"

"-is determined to come back," the Captain winked at him.

The Doctor pushed away the wish to grin. Deep down, he had never ceased to hope she would not give up in trying overcoming the impossible. "Yeah? What about her family? Friends?"

"Can't say much on the matter. Rose hasn't been too open on the subject, and, really, who am I to rub salt into her wounds," he rolled his eyes.

"Is she okay?"

Relatively speaking, Rose Tyler _was_ okay. She had her very supportive family with her, even a father, who often ended up even more on her side than Jackie. There were the parallel versions of her childhood friends, chances to not repeat some mistakes, work opportunities – at Torchwood, for one…

However, she was running out of patience. Taking inconceivable risks. Rushing headlong into what seemed like a chance to either get a tiny step closer to reaching the Doctor or, as often seemed to have been the case, to get herself in trouble, often including almost-dying in the process. Jack was immensely thankful to Tosh and Gwen from Rose's current world for keeping an eye on her. Of course, the Captain's unquestionable abilities to convince had helped immensely. After all, this was only temporary…

Had Rose not called him, the man might have taken some unjustifiable steps himself. Ruining or destroying timelines, if necessary. None of this had to happen. None of it. A fixed point in time, yeah… If she was not here with them in twenty minutes, Jack Harkness would reconsider the entire Time Lord nonsense again.

"She is. Should be."

"Should be?" the Doctor fought hard not to lose control. Had he really been thinking it was nice to have Jack back? Not quite any more. He loved solving mysteries, yes, but…

Jack raised his hands hopelessly. _Oh, well._ Rose would be coming any time now. It was no longer any of his business. "She was not feeling very well the last time I saw her," he admitted.

"When was it?" Maybe the Time Lord could at least make out some pattern from all this.

"A week ago," Jack smirked at the Doctor. "Before you ask, it was nothing serious. Rose seemed kind of upset about things not running so smoothly." _She was a nervous wreck, if I'd ever seen one…_

The alien glared at him. "Do I want to know?"

_You sure do, Doc. _"I'm sure Rose will tell you herself, when she arrives."

"What have you lot _done_ to her?" the Time Lord's voice was ice-cold.

"We have tried to make sure she could resume a normal Earth life." The success of the attempt was clear from the look in his eyes.

"You should have known better, yeah?" The Doctor grinned, which seemed fairly incredible to Jack.

"Yes!" He was glad to finally see him smile, and grinned back. "There were some futile attempts, some foolish ones, some _interesting_ ones…"

The Gallifreyan eyed the man searchingly.

"She's nearly got Ianto killed for showing her the way to the Lever Room in Torchwood," he rolled his eyes, then cursed himself inwardly for having mentioned it, as the Time Lord's look became haunted and empty. "_Parallel_ Torchwood. Parallel universe, and everyone."

The Doctor remained still.

"Hey, Doc! I'm sorry!"

"How's she doing in Torchwood?"

"Oh… She was one of the best, I assure you! Her knowledge of alien species-"

_Was?_

"Ah, that… she left the position soon afterwards. I assume it was because of this Pete being a rich man there, and he had said Rose was free to do anything she liked- Opened her eyes, perhaps. She's kind of a freelancer now. Comes whenever she pleases. It's rather hard to let go of all the adventures… And we _do_ need her help."

The Doctor was listening to Jack's words as if they were a distant story. "Yes… Rose is brilliant."

"And she's coming. Your Rose, she's coming back," the Captain patted the Time Lord on the shoulder.

The Gallifreyan knew someone must be imagining things. Either himself, having so easily given in to false hopes, or Jack, which was just as equally credible. But pretending _did_ feel so good… "You haven't yet told me how that is even possible."

The Captain cleared his throat. Here came the hard part. "You do remember the _Bad Wolf_ incident, yeah?"

_Incident?_ The Doctor sighed heavily. "She'd nearly died back then, Jack."

_Oh, the irony… _"And you sort of _have_. Because of her. And the mere possibility to actually die was taken away from me. How does that sound? Exciting?"

"It sounds terrible," the Time Lord admitted, his voice barely audible. "But Rose… She did not know what she was doing. You don't need to be mad at her for it…"

"I'm not. If I'm mad at someone, it's _you_, Doctor."

The Time Lord shrugged, not surprised. "Yeah?"

"Have you really thought that kiss was enough to remove all of her new shiny cells, or should I say, her newly created, or newly discovered, essence from her?"

The Doctor was terrified, not reacting to the man's poor choice of words.

"I mean, really, Doctor? Even after having had people continuously mentioning-"

Jack was stopped by the wild stare of the Doctor. "Have you at least been keeping her safe from the inhuman staff of that goddamn-"

"-Torchwood? Yeah. Had to make use of her superior abilities once or twice… But in the end, we'd ended up running from the lot. As it comes, all of it was for the better. Determined, fearless, capable-"

_And so very brilliant._

The alien gestured for the man to stop talking, able, yet unwilling to thoroughly consider any of his chatter. "Where exactly _is_ Rose?"

"When I talked to her last," the Captain twirled his mobile meaningfully," she was, I guess… a kilometre or so away. Considering she has to remain inconspicuous-"

The Doctor nodded at him thoughtfully. "Are you here to see about her arriving successfully, or?"

_Finally. _At last, the alien seemed to believe him. Jack sighed in relief. "Actually, she happens to have one of the last working vortex manipulators with her. I'm here to retrieve it," he shrugged. "Hey, of course I'm here to make sure she arrives safely! After this, Rose will be entirely your responsibility."

Just as the glare seemed to have evaporated from the Doctor's eyes, Martha entered, clearly surprised to find the door wasn't locked. "Hey, sorry to interrupt, but some woman asks to speak to you," she motioned towards the Doctor, her look mistrusting. Or to the both of you, I suppose," she added. "Refused to say anything about herself. Said she'd rather wait for you outside, which leaves me thinking-"

"We have indeed been waiting for her," Jack smirked at the Doctor, who looked both excited and terrified. At that instance, all he could recall from the conversation was something regarding the Bad Wolf…

"Come, I'll lead you to her," the Captain smirked, knowing the way from the TARDIS as the back of his hand.

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_A/N. Not in this chapter, either…But hey, almost! ;)_


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